The Indus Civilization c9.23

c9.23

Small flat sherds cut with triangular incisions seem to be fragments of pottery boxes or stands, and this type of ornamentation occurs on some of the earliest ware of Egypt, Sumer, and Elam. The examples from Mohenjo-daro are, unfortunately, very small, but when this decoration is found at other sites it is mainly confined to the stems of offering-stands. It certainly has the effect of reducing the weight of the latter, and the theory has been advanced that the high Sumerian stands, which are of stone as well as pottery, were copied from the reed-stands of identical shape now often to be seen supporting the trays of sweetmeat-sellers on Indian railway stations and, more likely than not, were used in the market places of the Indus valley.